


The Use of the Populace, and the Scorn of the People

by vanessa_cardui



Category: Original Work
Genre: Betrayal, Con Artists, M/M, Public Humiliation, Public Sex, Punishment, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 08:49:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4053934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanessa_cardui/pseuds/vanessa_cardui
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aristan slumped a little in the stocks. Just a little, to show Kellen that he'd won, and that Aristan had finally learned his lesson. "I hadn't known," he said. "I promise, Kelly. Now that you've dropped the charges on this one, I've learned my lesson. No more games like that one. But it was so much money!"</p>
<p>"No more games," Kellen agreed. "And I haven't dropped the charges."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Use of the Populace, and the Scorn of the People

Aristan was already in the stocks when Kellen arrived, but the public had not yet been admitted. He gave his best rueful smile, looking up at Kellen from under his long lashes. "Praise be," he said, as Kellen sat himself down on the bench in front of the stocks. "I had thought you wouldn't be able to get here soon enough."

"I'm here," said Kellen, and there was something dead in his voice.

The stocks meant that he couldn't shrug, exactly, but Aristan's hands tried to convey his emotions. "I am sorry," he said. "It was just so much money—you can't blame me for trying."

"It would've ruined me, Ari," said Kellen. "I would've had more debts than assets if you'd gotten away with that. I'd have had to go to exile, or slaved as a debtor."

Aristan laughed. "Come on. Your father would've bailed you out, again."

"No," said Kellen. "He'd warned me about you three times, and I refused to listen three times. He wouldn't have raised a finger, even if I'd wound up where you are now."

Aristan slumped a little in the stocks. Just a little, to show Kellen that he'd won, and that Aristan had finally learned his lesson. "I hadn't known," he said. "I promise, Kelly. Now that you've dropped the charges on this one, I've learned my lesson. No more games like that one. But it was so much money!"

"No more games," Kellen agreed, and Aristan let himself actually relax. Not that Kellen would've gone through with it, but he might have tried to draw things out a little more. Even as it was, it'd be months before he'd try anything again; standing in front of a magistrate like that, hearing the sentence--

"And I haven't dropped the charges," said Kellen.

"You idiot!" Aristan shouted. "There's no way you'll be able to get to the court before the public is admitted, and they'll--

"I'm not going to drop the charges," said Kellen. "My father was right, and it's time I listened to him."

"Listen," said Aristan, desperately. "I have been sentenced to the use of the populace, and the scorn of the people, and then they are going to sell me as a slave. You have to stop this, Kelly—I didn't do anything, really, they found out before you--"

"You've been stealing from me for years," said Kellen. "I trusted--" He bit the words back, turned his head away. Then looked back at Aristan. "Let's assume you didn't know that my father wouldn't help. I think you did know, but let's assume not. What then? You would've had everything I owned, and half of what my family owned. I would've ruined my sister's marriage hopes, and my father's restful old age. What would I have done next, Ari? Who would've employed me in any capacity? You would've been even richer than you started, but what would the rest of my life have been?"

Aristan strained against the stocks. If he could just grab Kellen by his shoulders, if he could just throw himself at Kellen's feet, he could warm up the ice in that voice, he could make everything right. But he couldn't, and there were sounds behind him, as the guards admitted the first of the witnesses. The witnesses first, by right, and then the populace at large.

"Why are you here, then?" he said.

"I am going to watch, Aristan," said Kellen. "I will watch the use of the populace, and the scorn of the people, and if there is anything of interest left afterward, perhaps I will purchase it."

Aristan gasped as the first witness—Aori, Kellen's overseer at the factories—splashed oil on the top of Aristan's ass, held up by the stocks, spread open by the way his knees were tied.

"Please?" he said.

"No," said Kellen, and Aori thrust in, thick and hard and angry, all in one stroke.


End file.
